Born From A Divine Gamble

She was going as fast as she could but the n.o.ble behind her just kept leisurely walking. The worse was that he easily kept up with her. How was he walking so slowly but moving so quickly?

Finally, the iron gates leading to the mage"s domain came into her view. She went to it and rang the visitors bell. The wives of the mage were relaxing with their kids in the front yard when Galana arrived. One of them came to the gate to see who it was.

"Good afternoon miss, what can we do for you?"

"Hi we got attacked in an alley nearby and he is in need of healing."

The woman shot a quick look at Emp"s bleeding arm before she nodded and called her son.

"Reighter, go tell your dad he"s got customers."

The kid ran inside and the woman opened the gate for them. She led them both inside and Galana was stunned by what she saw. She had never been into such an expensive estate.

The walls were painted, the doors, their frames and the stairs railings were all impressively detailed and even the waiting chairs were all lavish. Tall scented candles lined the walls and the high ceiling gave the impression that the corridor was much bigger than it really was.

They were then led through a giant double door into the room were the mage performed his magic. It was easy to tell that it was his working place by the strange mood ruling over the room and the large quant.i.ty of magical ingredients lining the walls.

The mage was sat in the middle of the room and beckoned them to also sit down on the chairs facing him. She did and he started talking immediately.

"I"m always glad to be of help but I would like to make sure of two things first."

"What?"

"I like to know who I am talking to and also, I would like to be sure you can actually pay for my services. Judging by the debt iron you are wearing, I would guess not."

"But I"m not the one injured, he is and he does have a lot of money."

"If that"s the case, why are you here?"

"I"m here to do the translation because he doesn"t understand the common tongue."

"I could just speak in the n.o.ble tongue then. Would that be easier for you?" He asked Emp in his language.

"You can speak it?" She was glad because everything would be easier now but she also was a little annoyed that she was now useless.

"That is great!" Said Emp. "I am so glad to meet someone I can speak to again."

What about herself? He spoke to her so much she wanted to glue his lips together to stop him but now he said it as if none of it even mattered to him.

"Good, so, let me see who I am speaking to."

Emp showed him his card and the man had an expected reaction.

"A Muracier under my roof, what an honor for me to be able to help you. My name is Bernard Forcore, mostly known for my talent in healing, what can I do for you."

They shook hands and Galana felt exasperated that Emp bled all over the desk of the mage without a care. Why even ask, about what they needed, wasn"t it obvious with all the blood! There was a literal trail of blood beginning at the entrance door and leading all the way here. She was so glad this wasn"t her own house, she really did not want to have to scrub that afterwards. She felt faint just thinking about it.

"You see, my leg hurts." Said Emp innocently.

What was wrong with him! That wasn"t the time to talk about his leg at all!

"For the love of all the G.o.ds and the spirits too! Are you really doing this to me right now? Could you not start with your arm that"s bleeding everywhere first!"

"But it is really not that bad. It is not even a knuckle deep."

What kind of measurement was that? A knuckle deep would be a quarter of his whole arm, probably as deep as the bone. That wound may not be knuckle deep but it was deep enough to bleed everywhere.

"I was about to say the same!" Said the mage before she had the time to protest. What was wrong with the heads of those two? "You just need a bandage and some ointment for this."

"Just fix it! We"ll talk about the leg after! All right?"

She couldn"t stand all that blood anymore, she just wanted things to go back to how they were. If it was that easy than just fix it already instead of teasing her.

"Let"s do something about your arm then since your wife is so agitated and won"t stop nagging us about it."

Who was nagging? And she wasn"t his wife either!

"She is not my wife, she is just my guide." Said Emp to correct him.

"Good for you, it would have been a pity."

"What"s that supposed to mean!"

This was clearly an insult! And Emp just shrugged like he didn"t disagree. They didn"t even know her, how could they say she wouldn"t make a good wife? She would have punched the both of them if not for the fact that it would put her into even more trouble.

The mage went to a shelf and came back with a jar he put on the desk. He unsealed it, slid his arm inside and got something moist and disgusting out of it.

"Eww, what is that?"

"That"s the heart of a blood-spitter, kept sealed and as fresh as possible."

The heart of a blood-spitter! Wasn"t that thing dangerous? She thought. It"s blood could melt steel armor!

"No need to worry, there"s no blood left in it." Said the mage when he saw her face.

He placed it above Emp"s arm and did a simple ritual accompanied with complex spell casting. After a short moment, he gripped the arm and blood gushed out of it in droves. She started to panic, was this supposed to happen? If it went wrong and something happened to Emp, she was definitely dead. Also, all that blood was making her sick.

The mage did not pay any attention to her and finished his spell to reveal that the arm of the n.o.ble was brand new. She could finally relax. Emp would not die because of her stupid mistake and she would be safe for a time. Relieved, she slumped herself down on the chair and thanked the mage sincerely.

"Thank you, I can finally breathe."

"No problem, that was really easy to do." He told her before turning back to Emp. "But, I used a lot of your blood to fix it so you will have to eat a lot to fill back your veins and you may feel a bit dizzy for a couple of days."

At least now he had an excuse to eat so much thought Galana.

"So, now that this is done, what were you saying about your leg? Show it to me."

Galana didn"t expect much from it, what could possibly be worse than the cut he had on his arm earlier. Emp proceeded to reveal one of the worst things she ever saw. It looked like a wolf had gnawed at his leg for a month. The thing was all jagged and full of pus, the color alone was enough to almost make her throw up. It looked like the stomach of the other guy even though it was just a leg.

"f.u.c.k! What is that? How can you even walk on that!"

She shook of disgust and had to turn around to keep her diner in.

"Well, I told you my leg hurt."

"That"s crazy, you"re the dumbest idiot I"ve ever seen! You should have went to fix that immediately!"

If he was trying to scare her to death, he was really good at it.

"Speaking of which, this is an old wound, when did you get it?"

"I am not sure, a little more than a week ago. I only reached Red-water yesterday so I did not have the time to do anything about it yet."

He wasn"t sure he said! How could you even forget something like this?

"Young man," Said the mage, "you really need to learn how to take care of a wound better than this. Not only is your wound ugly but it"s also infected."

"Will he lose his leg?" Earlier that day she wouldn"t have minded but now, she felt it really wasn"t in her best interest for him to lose a leg, at least not now.

"No, not if I heal it but it"s going to cost you a good sum."

"I do not mind paying for that."

Who would mind paying for that! As long as one had enough money, anyone would pay to not lose a leg!

"All right then, lay down on the table and I will fix it."

The mage once again went around his shelves and came back with a liquid that looked like a stew forgotten in an empty room for a year. Meanwhile Galana tried to figure out what could possibly have went through his mind in that week.

"You"ve been walking with this for a whole week and you haven"t done anything about it, really?"

"I did, I stopped it from bleeding too much."

"That"s nowhere near enough idiot! The thing is infected now, if you had not gone to the mage, it would have eaten your leg and the rest of you too!"

She had seen it happen a couple of times already. Sometimes, a death-seeker got stuck somewhere with nothing for a while and came back with an infected wound despite his best efforts. Then, the healers had to do their best to remove all the infected flesh with knife and flame, hoping it would be enough to stop it from spreading further. Sometimes it wasn"t and the poor guy died of a strange sickness.

This guy was the worst, he didn"t even try to prevent it. What would have happened if he didn"t go to a mage? He could have been taken by a fever any day now!

The mage finished preparing his things and she heard him pour the rot smelling liquid over the wound. She heard Emp hiss and the mage talk.

"It"s going to hurt a lot more in a moment so I"ll have my second wife hold down your leg for me alright?"

She hadn"t even noticed that the wife was still there. She wondered where the kid had disappeared.

"Yes this is fine." Answered the idiot.

"Do you need me to do something too?"

She wanted to help too if at all possible, what a better way to prove that she was sorry than to help save his leg? And sure, she wanted him to be safe too, if only a little.

"I need you to not disturb me and not faint."

He didn"t even think she was as useful as his pregnant wife? Why did she seem so untrustworthy to him? She had done nothing wrong... Well, almost. And she had changed her mind too, that had to count for something no?

She heard the atrociously long spell casting from behind her but she refused to look because she was scared she would really faint if she saw it again. She heard Emp scream of pain and she wished she could turn her ears away as well. He hadn"t even reacted to the terrible cut, how painful must this be for him to scream like that? After a very long time, everything stopped and the tired mage announced he had finished.

Galana hesitatingly turned around to peek at the wound but was only half relieved when she saw that now, instead of a gaping wound, there was a plant covering most of his leg. What was happening now?

"Don"t worry about it, that flower will feed off of the infection and keep your wound closed at the same time. It will fall off on its own when you are fully healed so don"t remove it. If you do, you"re just going to make more trouble for yourself. It will leave a scar but if it really annoys you, another spell should be able to remove it then."

"Thank you." Emp said simply but Galana wasn"t satisfied with only that.

"Will it really be alright with just that?" He had just covered the wound with a bunch of flowers after all. If the guy died because of random spell, it would be terrible. Terrible for her she meant.

"How dare you say just that! I will have you know this is one of the hardest spells I know how to cast and it used up all my reserve of corruption drinking elixir and a blue fairy-bell too. A good physician would have told you to cut off his leg before he lost the rest too."

Of course she knew what the physician would have said, the taverns were full of random warriors with missing limbs! That wasn"t what she was talking about! Who was he taking her for, an idiot? Still, he was a mage, she couldn"t afford to offend him, and since he already was, she had to backtrack.

"Yes, of course, I"m sorry, that"s not what I meant to say. I just meant to ask if this spell was enough on its own or if he needed something else as well."

"No, he doesn"t need anything else. The corruption drinking elixir gathered all the infection in itself and will feed the fairy-bell with it. The spell will stop the flower from growing out of control and when there is nothing left for it to drink, it will fall off. The flower also has healing properties of its own and will help his body heal itself."

"This is incredible." She said to flatter him.

"I know. You can get back up now." He said to Emp.

The n.o.ble got back up but he seemed really tired to Galana. It was as if he had worked in the fields for the whole day and he was as pale as bones.

"Then, about my payment, It will cost you a total of forty gold coins."

It was so expensive! No wonder there were so many warriors missing limbs. Who could ever afford that kind of spell?

Her own mother had known some magic too but she didn"t have the money to learn or even cast those powerful spells that brought fortune upon an entire family. Her teacher had died before she could learn the advanced things and herself had died before she could teach anything to Galana. She had tried but Galana seemed to have no natural talent for the control of water, unlike her mother.

While she was thinking of her mother, Emp got the money from the bag without even haggling and paid the mage what he asked.

"It"s a pleasure to work for a Muracier, come back anytime." Once they were back at the entrance gate.

Of course you would like that you sly b.a.s.t.a.r.d, forty gold! There were only magic healers to ever wish for their clients to get hurt.